


Corporate Secrets

by sanctum_c



Series: Renegade Aeris x Cloud Week 2019 [2]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Archaeologist!Aerith, Archaeology, Conspiracy, F/M, First Meetings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-05-10
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27153955
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sanctum_c/pseuds/sanctum_c
Summary: Aeris Gainsborough knows everything about the Cetra. Or so she thinks until a stranger turns up with an artefact the like she has never seen before.
Relationships: Aerith Gainsborough/Cloud Strife
Series: Renegade Aeris x Cloud Week 2019 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1982047
Kudos: 4





	Corporate Secrets

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt 'Paths'

Aeris Gainsborough was still considered by most the top of her field in matters involving the Ancients, or Cetra. She might be young, but she had spent long hours in the known ruins thanks to her (occasionally sinister) patron, the Shinra Electric Company. Quite what a power company with a sideline in weapons development wanted with a long dead culture was a mystery but every part of her search was fascinating and enthralling - and if the company was willing to pay for her findings she was content.

She seemed to be lucky more than anything else. More papers, more books and more detail in the five years since she undertook the research project than anyone managed in a century prior. There was an almost instinctual way Aeris knew which ruins held something of interest, or a wall blocked some interesting curios, or a barren patch of ground was the right elevation, positioning and proximity to other known ancient structures to be a likely location for a Cetra structure.

Success could not last forever, and there remained the odd fear on every expedition something would go wrong this time; she would be absolutely certain as she always was – and find nothing. No hidden structure, no sealed up container with a dozen scrolls in difficult to parse glyphs in a language no one could speak or read. Occasionally the worry prevented her sleeping; she had succeeded so far, thrown away anything and everything else to focus so completely on this one skill of hers. What happened when, or perhaps more optimistically, if it ever abandoned her? No answers as yet.

And the stranger challenged everything she knew or perhaps thought she knew. He arrived late at night when she was considering taking a break and vegging out at home. “Doctor Gainsborough?” A hooded figure peered into her office.

“Yes?”

“I wondered if I could beg a moment of your time. About the Cetra?”

Curious already; few used the correct term within her field. Fewer outside it – and this man was assuredly not someone from the community. But it was a Friday and it was late. “Can this wait?” The figure wilted. “Sorry, its just been a long day and I have a lot I still need to do.” Scattered papers, funding requests, inventories, speculative translations of glyphs, some questions for the next journal. The figure did not move. “Fine.”

He glanced back out the door. “I wasn’t sure I could trust you.”

“Me?” Aeris said, spluttering. “I’m not sure why you’d worry.”

“Shinra.”

“My sponsor?” Ah. Potentially one of the protestors. This was a new one; harassing a researcher unconnected with admittedly dubious power-generation methods. “I do appreciate your concerns, sir, but I really don’t have any kind of influence over-“

The man removed his hand from under his cloak; he gripped a metallic circle unlike anything Aeris had seen. The glyphs upon it were familiar enough, if not their meaning. “Where…. Where did you find that.” She reached out with trembling hands. The man let her take it.

“In Nibelheim.” Absurd. The Shinra company originated from that far-flung mountain town. Surely they would have found a promising Cetra dig-site years before given their interest. “It was uncovered during the reactor construction.”

Aeris dragged her attention from the glyphs and the circle. Once part of something larger. The glyphs repeated with a rapidity not seen elsewhere in Cetra glyphs. “What was that?”

The man shrugged, the movement curious, a hint of a light under the hood. Implausible. “The record indicated that and similar pieces were found during the Nibelheim Mako reactor.”

“That was fifty years ago!” Aeris couldn’t help her voice rising. The figure gestured at her frantically. “Sorry, this is an absurd story. Why would Shinra not have told me about these?”

“Shinra keeps a lot to itself.” The figure paused and flung back his hood. Blond spikes and a handsome face. But all secondary to the real curiosity he exhibited. Around each pupil was an unmistakable glowing ring. A SOLDIER. “This-“ He gestured at his eyes. “Was done to me.”

“I thought they were clear what signing up would do.” Her voice came out in a murmur, certain that this assumption was far from correct.

“I wouldn’t know. I never got a choice.” The man snorted. “Signed up, rejected and then they took me to operate on anyway.” He glanced away from her, face contorted. Something more there. Something worse.

Aeris sat down heavily. She still held the metallic circle and struggled to find her voice. “Did- Did you see anything that might suggest what this was?”

The man shook his head. “If they knew, they kept that more hidden. But, I think it has something to do with this. He fumbled in some pocket or container beneath this cloak. A larger, jagged chunk of metal marked with new glyphs. Wait. Images perhaps? No. A map. A number of the familiar Cetra ruins picked out with other markings on the metal – in addition to Nibelheim. But most interesting was a larger marker as part of an island chain off the coast of the Western continent.

Betrayal. Motivated betrayal. What was Shinra’s game? To have her roaming and digging up trinkets when something like this, an entire map lay who knew where? “Where in Nibelheim was this?”

“Shinra mansion.”

How arrogantly typical. “Thank you, Mr-?”

“Strife.”

“Strife.” The map was hard to look away from. “I will try and sort some compensation if you could see fit to leaving these with me-“

“Not letting them out of my sight.” He gripped the map tighter. “And I need to see whatever this is through.”

“Do you have an archaeological experience?” Aeris doubted it, but coincidences were not unknown. Mr. Strife shook his head. “Then I can’t really take you with me.”

“I can help keep you safe.” He expression brooked no compromise. “And if you follow the map, I think you’ll need it.”

Aeris raised her eyebrows. “I thought Nibelheim was quiet?”

“It is. But it’d be pointless to go back now; Shinra sent three divisions to that island.” He gestured at the map. “Something’s happening and soon. And I’m certain you’re the only person who might be able to understand what.”

No choice at all, but still an odd need to justify it. So many things to do here, mundane – if interesting – versus seeing these other sites. And uncovering the things Shinra deemed fit to hide from her. The man seemed justly paranoid about the company. Might be an idea to adopt the same stance. “Very well, Mr. Strife. I think we can come to some arrangement.”

That got a smile. “Thank you, Doctor Gainsborough.”

“Aeris, please.”

“Aeris,” he said. “I’m Cloud.”


End file.
